Mandy Patterson

PTA Vice President

When the PTA asked for volunteers I selected several boxes and was asked to be the treasurer. This was a great place for me; I learned so much about the needs that the school, the families at the school and the parents had.

Walter E. Massey, Ph.D.

President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Whether the issue is sustainability, public education, or social justice, artists and designers engage, adapt, reimagine, and continue to move the definition of innovation forward.

Richard Whitmire

Veteran newspaper reporter, Author of The Bee Eater: Michelle Rhee Takes on the Nation’s Worst School District

The class action lawsuit the ACLU announced last week against both Michigan and a tiny Detroit area school district for failing to educate its own children raises this question: Can schools ever compensate for the ills of poverty?

Edward Murray

McSweeney's, Huffington Post, NYT Bestseller 'The 4-Hour Workweek'

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx is the chairwoman of the Higher Education & Workforce Training Subcommittee. It turns out that Virginia Foxx knows about as much about the specifics behind the student loan crisis as Red Foxx, who is dead.

Bettina Elias Siegel

Former lawyer, freelance writer and blogger at The Lunch Tray

A recent story claimed that a preschooler in a North Carolina school was forced by a state inspector to give up her packed lunch and take a school lunch of chicken nuggets. Something didn't smell right to me.

C. M. Rubin

Blogger and author, 'The Real Alice in Wonderland'

What do we mean when we say that beyond skills and knowledge, an arts education better prepares students for the 21st century?

Steven Newton

Programs and Policy Director for the National Center for Science Education

Bottom line: we have to ensure that evolution is taught well in public schools. This means exerting community pressure for, rather than against, integrity in science education.

Alan Singer

Social studies educator, Hofstra University

Other cities and states are discovering the value of connecting ordinary high school students with colleges.

Martin Carnoy

Professor of education and economics at Stanford University

The assertion that we don't know what makes good teachers before trying them out for a few years while measuring their students' test gains is simply not true.